Split View, Slide Over, and Picture in Picture are some of my favorite new features in iOS 9. They allow you to show multiple apps side by side in a few very useful ways, such as writing an article like this while chatting in a Destiny Slack room (yes I’m in a Slack room for Destiny wannafightaboutit), or browsing the web while checking Twitter or the weather or stocks or your bank account.
Here are the ways to trigger each feature and the best tips I’ve found so far for getting the most out of them.
Slide Over
- Swipe to the left from the right side of your display to open your second-most recently used app in Slide Over
- Pull down on the bar at the top of the Slide Over panel to change which app appears there
- Tap the white bar on the left of the Slide Over panel to switch to Split View and give both apps their own space (no more overlapping)
Note: if you don’t see a white bar next to Slide Over, that app has not yet been updated to support Split View. Reach out to its developer and ask them, nicely, to update. Then give it a great App Store review.
Split View
- Once an app is in Slide Over, tap the white bar just to the left of the panel to enter Split View and give both apps their own space
- Pull down on the bar at the top of Split View and change its app
- Drag the divider between apps to the left to give them equal space. It seems you cannot drag so far as to put the left app in a thin column; that’s reserved for the app on the right, but
- [Update] Swipe the bar all the way to the left to make the right app go full screen
- Change the app on the left using traditional options—swipe left and right with four fingers, or double-tap the Home button for the iOS app switcher
Picture in Picture (PiP)
- In apps like ProTube or Apple’s Videos, tap the small icon at the far right of the bottom toolbar to make the video float above other apps (it looks like a box with an arrow pointing down and right towards a second black box). If you don’t see that icon, the app needs an update to support Picture in Picture
- You can drag the video to any four corners of your display. If an app triggers the keyboard, the video will shift to make sure it still stays on screen
- Pinch on the video to shrink and expand its size
- PiP videos can span across Split View and Slide Over panels, but their width is capped at half the size of your display
- Tap on the video for a few controls to exit PiP, pause/play, and close the video
- Swipe the video towards the nearest left or ride side to hide it in a bin, of sorts (see screenshots). It’s a quick way to reach controls or content it might be obscuring. Tap the bin to get the video back
That’s about all I’ve found so far. Did I miss anything?